She’s autumn’s biggest draw as Blanche DuBois, and back in that slinky blouse for a second series of The Fall. Who’s calling Gillian Anderson chilly now?

Many men out there, and no doubt some women, too, will be pleased to hear that
much of my chat with Gillian Anderson is spent ploughing on about “sexual
energies”. Anderson — a great actress, a huge star and, most vitally, FHM’s
Sexiest Woman in the World in 1996 — has a certain hold on her public. A
potent mix of serious kudos and erotic frisson, she’s an adult proposition
in every sense. Sorry, though, guys: this being Anderson, we’re not in a
world of kittenish confessions, but something a bit tougher and deeper: a
wide-reaching chat involving dysfunction, misogyny and the sex trade. “All
this energy,” sighs the actress eventually, as we somehow end up on sex
trafficking in the Middle East. “All this energy being expended to finance,
deal with, regulate, abolish men’s sex drive!” It’s the most bracing brunch
I’ve ever had.